Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar  described  the  ‘Bharat bandh’ called by NDA to protest against petrol price hike, as total success.
Demanding the Centre roll back hike in the prices of petrol immediately, Kumar told reporters at Bhagalpur, “The success of the bandh reflected people’s anger against the Centre for its failure to curb price rise.” Kumar, who claimed the shutdown was total, had cancelled all his official programmes in Bhagalpur because of the bandh.
Police said that more than 1,000 workers and leaders of the NDA and Left parties have been arrested since the shutdown came into effect.
Senior Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav was arrested in Saharsa district along with JD-U MP from Khagaria parliamentary constituency Dinesh Chandra Yadav, while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shahnawaz Hussain was arrested in Bhagalpur where he was leading protestors.
According to police, over a dozen legislators of the JD-U and BJP have been arrested.
BJP state president C.P. Thakur claimed that the response to the shutdown was near total in the state. Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) leader Kunal said that people were supporting the shutdown as they were fed up with hike in fuel prices.
Hundreds of workers of the JD-U and the BJP forced shops and commercial establishments to close down for the day in the state.
Protestors damaged a number of vehicles in state capital Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga to enforce the shutdown, a police official said.
A group of ruling NDA activists also ransacked the Mairwa railway station in Siwan district.
At Patna’s busy Dak Bungalow crossing, JD-U and CPI-ML workers clashed over burning of an effigy of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.